


Confirm/Reject

by stareyednight



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-26
Updated: 2012-09-26
Packaged: 2017-11-15 02:16:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/522063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stareyednight/pseuds/stareyednight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carly gets a Facebook request she doesn't expect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Confirm/Reject

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this ages ago and thought I posted it. Takes place after [(On the) Outside Looking In](http://archiveofourown.org/works/522061). Big thanks to my husband for all the help with Sideswipe.

Carly leans over her desk, checking her Facebook as Sam rushes around behind her, muttering about his tie. She has sifted through her news feed, scanning past Farmville and friend requests from old school friends who saw her on tv with giant robots. One request catches her eye, though.

_Mikaela Banes has sent a friend request._

She pauses and checks the photo as Sam runs past her again with half a piece toast crammed in his mouth. It was definitely Sam's ex; Carly recognises her by one of Leo's photos Sam was in on Facebook. She clicks on Mikaela's name to see her profile, curiosity getting the better of her. Mikaela's profile picture is her with a guy a few years older, windblown on the top of the Empire State Building. Carly's not too proud to admit that she checks Mikaela's relationship status.

_Mikaela Banes is in a relationship with Brenton Ames._

She's thinking about it, her finger dancing over the trackpad when Sam calls for her, Sideswipe's out the front and they have to go.

She thinks about it all day. As she sifts through Simmons's file boxes of Sector Seven data, she keeps an eye on her phone, as if Facebook is going to delete it before she's had time to properly consider.

Dutch comes into the library-turned-archive around one with a sandwich and bottle of water and she sets Project Black Knife notes aside and clears room on the table.

“How goes the work?” he asks as she eats. She's sitting sideways on a chair, still enjoying the fact that she doesn't have to wear high heels at work. There's a smudge of ancient printing ink on her thumb and she grins at him.

“Very good. There's a lot of work to be done, but it's fascinating reading.”

“By the time you are done, you will know more about the Autobots than Mr Simmons,” Dutch says with a smile back and she laughs.

“By the time I'm done we'll hopefully have talked him out of SSiCCK.”

“Yes, the Seymour Simmons Centre for Cybertronian Knowledge doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.”

“Dutch!” Simmons's voice bounces through the half-renovated mansion. “Dutch, do you know when MSNBC is coming? Are they going to conflict with CNN?” He arrives in the doorway. He's wearing a blue brocade smoking jacket that offends Carly's fashion sense horribly, but he smiles broadly at her. “How's my little librarian doing today?”

“Really I'm more of an archivist now. But, yes, good. The Project Black Knife files are extremely interesting. I think they'll have to be cross referenced with some of Project Iceman and a whole heap of the other files. I think I might need a computer, actually.”

Simmons beams at her like she's discovered NBE-2. “Dutch, let's get the young lady a computer!”

Duch beams, too, clasping his hands together in front of his ascot. “Wonderful. I think I see a one Terabyte hard drive, a nice big LED screen. We don't want your eyes getting too burned out. Of course, networked into the secure server. How do you feel about-?”

Simmons cuts him off before Dutch's eyes start misting over. “Yes, yes, you're a guru. Just get her a computer that will organise the beginning of the Seymour Simmons Centre for Cybertronian Knowledge.” He gestures expansively and Carly and Dutch share a look.

A phone rings somewhere in the house and Dutch gets up to get it. Simmons stays, surveying the boxes and boxes Carly has really just started scratching the surface of. She caps her bottle of water and picks up the file she abandoned for her lunch.

“Is there something else, Mr Simmons?”

“No, just basking in the joy of so much knowledge, finally being archived and curated and soon to be understood! You're the perfect person for this job, Carly,” Simmons says, suddenly serious and direct.

“Thank you. It means a lot that you wanted me here. After what happened with Dylan, and having being associated with him for so long, I'm not exactly the most trusted person in the country. Finding a job was not going to be pretty.”

“Don't you worry. Charlotte, I mean _Director Mearing_ 's taking care of that. Instead you're right where you need to be.” 

“Exactly. Plus, I get to wear whatever I want,” she adds impishly.

“I wouldnt be complaining if you wore what you used to wear to work.” Simmons's smile turns back to cheeky and she laughs with him.

“Sir, the producer from ABC is on the phone. Do you think you could..?” Dutch inclines the phone at Simmons, who takes it and heads back into the rest of the house.

Carly dives back into the files, making notes in her book and slowly the boxes are becoming more ordered. It's nearly five o'clock when she reaches the bottom of a file box and that seems like the right place to stop for the day. Making sure her space is tidied and ordered, not that anyone else will be in the library until she's back tomorrow, she retrieves her high heels from under her chair and slides them on. She sends Sideswipe a text and by the time she's said goodbye to Dutch and waved at Simmons from behind the CNN camera, he's idling in front of the house. She slides into the driver's seat, but leaves the wheel and adjusts the radio as Sidewipe pulls away smoothly.

The benefits of having an Autobot as a car are many, including not having to focus as they drive. Her eyes are a bit tired after reams of faded type and crabbed notes in many margins. She knows that this is a huge project, one she's really only starting to understand the scope of, but it's more fufilling than she thought and she is starting to love it.

She looks up as Sideswipe pulls up to a red light and notices someone checking out her truly fabulous car. She puts one hand on the wheel casually before the light changes and someone notices she's not actually driving her car and laughs when Sideswipe revs his engine to remind her who's in charge.

Now that they're moving again, she checks her email and Facebook and sees the friend request from Mikaela. Again, her finger hovers over the screen. Sideswipe swerves around a men at work sign and Carly slides to the side, her inattention causing her to slide into the door.

“You might want to at least pretend you're driving,” Sideswipe says through the stereo speakers. He sounds odd when filtered through Lady Gaga and Carly turns the station off. “Don't want to worry the civilians.”

“Did you know Mikaela?” she asks, suddenly.

There's a silence in the car and Carly almost thinks he's not going to answer. “Yes,” he says finally. “She is a superb driver.” Carly automatically puts her hands back on the steering wheel.

There's a hesitation before he goes on. “She and Sam were not the only ones who were... disordered... when their relationship ended.”

“Would you tell me about her? Really, I want to know. The truth.”

“She was brave. As much as any soldier. Sam told you about Egypt?”

“Yes, the Tomb of the Primes and the fight with the Decepticons and the Fallen?”

“That's the one. She and Sam ran across a mile of desert with Autobots, Decepticons and NEST all firing around them. Then, the target was marked too close and Sam nearly died in the explosion. He _was_ dead, I'm told, for a minute or two. I thought Mikaela might shoot someone herself. It was also the the first and only time we ever saw her cry.”

Carly sucks in a breath, biting her lip. “Sam has somehow never mentioned that he managed to die.” Sideswipe shifts under her in the traffic, guilty, and Carly lets the new information settle. He's alive now, and that's what counts. “Don't think he won't be hearing about that.”

“None of us were happy when she and Sam ended their relationship and less when she moved to New York,” Sideswipe continues, “but they weren't happy with each other in the end. You make Sam happy; he's more settled and less prone to his 'freakouts' since you arrived.”

“They were worse?” Carly laughs and they pull up to her building and finish the conversation on that note. She thanks him before slinging her handbag over her shoulder and getting out of the car.

Her phone's still in her hand as she calls the elevator. She lets the conversation with Sideswipe filter through and by the time the doors open, she's made up her mind and presses _Confirm_. 

She's wondering if she should tell Sam that she's 'friends' with his ex-girlfriend. When she opens the door and he's pacing around the kitchen, the knot of his tie under his left ear and ranting at the oven about the screwy left wheel on his mail cart, she decides it can wait til later.


End file.
